Since their first appearance, human beings have established a connection with the surrounding environment, by adapting to it or shaping it according to their needs in a harmonious balance, as it is testified by cultural landscapes. Through time, however, the

relationship has become difficult and troubled, due to an increasingly aggressive anthropic action, whose effects are well clear to all nowadays. The real emergency of the contemporary era doesn’t consist only in saving the traces of the past from oblivion, but also in mending the gash done to Nature because of a selfish approach, and in defining strategies in order to pass down the next generations this extraordinary heritage, empowered with new meaning and, above all, in a good health. It is a call to action, to ‘put the pieces together’ – as the graphic subject on the cover suggests – which finds an echo in the films selected for the 2021 edition of our festival, showing how powerfully cinematographic production can reflect cultural, political and social debate of an epoch.

The documentaries in competition are eighteen, both from Italy and foreign countries. We chose them for the quality of the contents, but also for the originality and sensitivity their stories are visually told in. Also, the film programme is enriched with experts’ conversations, educational workshops and visual art exhibitions: different ways for engaging people in a deep reflection on the impact of our passage on Earth and the need of establishing a new dialogue with it.

Earth has breath, soul and voice. She only asks to be listened, and respected.